Doctor’s Quotes Erased from History
Smallpox. It was once believed that this disease could be defeated by repeatedly scratching people’s arms with material from the sores of someone infected with smallpox—a procedure known as inoculation. Smallpox inoculation began in 1721 and was widely celebrated at its introduction as one of the greatest medical discoveries and a well-established fact in medical science. Despite being initially hailed as a completely harmless invention, inoculation had a 2-3% fatality rate.
References:
Frederick F. Cartwright, Disease and History, 1972, Rupert Hart-Davis, London, p. 124.
John Forbes, MD, FRS, Alexander Tweedie, MD, FRS, and John Conolly, MD, “Sketch of the State of American Medicine Before the Revolution,” The Cyclopaedia of Practical Medicine, 1845, pp. 231–242.
John Baron, The Life of Edward Jenner, pp. 490–491.
“Smallpox and the story of vaccination,” www.sciencemuseum.org.uk
“Multiple site vaccination of 1898, showing a ‘typically good arm,’” Derrick Baxby, “Smallpox Vaccination Techniques; from Knives and Forks to Needles and Pins,” Vaccine, vol. 20, no. 16, May 15, 2002, p. 2142.
“Hideously sore vaccination arm,” F.G. Attwood MD, “Vaccination,” The New York Medical Journal, December 2, 1899, p. 803.
“About one in ten of all vaccinated have bad arms, with a high grade of fever,” William Scott Tebb, MA, MD, DPH, A Century of Vaccination and What It Teaches, Second Edition, 1899, Swan Sonnenschein & Co., Lim., London, p. 373.
Charles Maclean, MD, On the State of Vaccination in 1810, London, pp. 101, 103.
Thomas Brown of Musselburgh, Surgeon, An Investigation of the present Unsatisfactory and Defective State of Vaccination, 1842, pp. 136–137.
Terrible Results of Vaccination: TESTIMONIES concerning Vaccination and its Enforcement: by Scientists, Statisticians, Philosophers, Publicists, and Vaccine Physicians, 1892, Providence, Snow & Farnham, Printers, pp. 13–14.
William Hycheman, MD, “Small-pox and Vaccination,” The Medical Tribune, February 15, 1879, vol. I, no. 4, pp. 172–175.
“Medical Opinion on Vaccination,” Journal of Hygeio-therapy, vol. II, no. 2, February 1888, p. 35.
“John Le Gay Bereton, Esq., MD, MRCS, LAC,” New South Wales, Compulsory Vaccination, Presented to the Parliament by Command, September 20, 1881, Sydney: Thomas Richards, Government Printer, pp. 1043–1046.
Robert A. Gunn, MD, “The Truth About Vaccination,” The Sanitarian: A Monthly Magazine, vol. XXVII, 1891, New York, pp. 553–554.
M. Deschere, MD, “Vaccination before the Tribunal of History,” North American Journal of Homeopathy, November 1883, pp. 190, 192.
George William Winterburn, PhD, MD, The Value of Vaccination: A Non-partisan Review of Its History and Results, 1886, pp. 42–43.
J. M. Peebles, MD, MA, PhD, Vaccination a Curse and a Menace to Personal Liberty, Tenth Edition, 1913, p. 8.
Simon L. Katzoff, MD, “The Compulsory Vaccination Crime,” Machinists’ Monthly Journal, vol. XXXII, no. 2, February 1920, p. 109.
Joe Shelby Riley, MD, MS, PhD, Conquering Units: Or The Mastery of Disease, 1921, pp. 883–4.
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What if smallpox was a mild disease?
Smallpox. In the history books, smallpox is painted as a deadly menace, spreading fear wherever it went. It hung like a dark cloud over communities for centuries, leaving a trail of sorrow in its wake. Smallpox is reputed to have claimed the lives of up to 20% of its victims, leaving a legacy of pain and grief.
But what if smallpox wasn’t the formidable killer it’s reputed to be? What if it was mostly a mild disease?
On the surface, that sounds like a completely ridiculous idea. However, throughout history, some doctors documented that smallpox was a mild ailment when appropriately managed and not mishandled.
References:
R. G. Latham, MD, The Works of Thomas Sydenham, MD, vol. I, 1848, London, pp. lxxii–lxxiii.
John Pechey, MD, The Whole Works of that Excellent Practical Physician Dr. Thomas Sydenham, MD, 1696, London, pp. 100, 404.
Isaac Massey, apothecary to Christ’s Hospital, A Short and Plain Account of Inoculation, 1722.
Isaac Massey, Remarks on Dr. Jurin’s Last Yearly Account of the Success of Inoculation, 1727, London, p. 5.
The Gentleman’s Magazine, July 1814, p. 24.
The Public, Chicago, Saturday, August 27, 1898, no. 21, p. 5.
The Parliamentary Debates, 1907, vol. CLXIX, p. 408.
Abraham Rees, The Cyclopaedia; Or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature, vol. 29, 1819.
John Mason Good, MD, The Study of medicine: Empyesis Variola Smallpox, vol 1, 1864, New York, Harper & Brothers, Publishers, pp. 639–640.
Charles Perry, MD, An Essay on the Smallpox, 1747, London. pp. 17–20.
Lydia Kang, Nate Pedersen, “The ‘Murderous’ Medical Practice of the 18th Century,” March 1, 2018.
Russell Thacher Trall, MD, Water-cure for the Million, 1860, New York, p. 7.
Samuel Dickson, MD, Glasgow, The “Destructive Art of Healing;” or, Facts for Families, Second Edition, 1855, London, Geo. Routledge & Co., pp. 5–6.
Henry G. Hanchett, M.D., “An Inquiry in Prophylaxis,” The New York Medical Times, vol. XVI, no. 10, January 1889, p. 306.
Charles V. Chapin, “Variation in Type of Infectious Disease as Shown by the History of Smallpox in the United States,” The Journal of Infectious Diseases, vol. 13, no. 2, September 1913, p. 173.
Harry Bernhardt Anderson, State Medicine a Menace to Democracy, 1920, p. 84.
C. Killick Millard, The Vaccination Question in the Light of Modern Experience: An Appeal for Reconsideration, 1914, London, pp. 15–17.
Charles V. Chapin, “Variation in Type of Infectious Disease as Shown by the History of Smallpox in the United States,” The Journal of Infectious Diseases, vol. 13, no. 2, September 1913, pp. 172-179.
John Gerald Fitzgerald, Peter Gillespie, and Harry Mill Lancaster, An Introduction to the Practice of Preventive Medicine, 1922, C.V. Mosby Company, p. 197.
John Price Crozer Griffith, The Diseases of Infants and Children, Volume 1, 1921, W.B. Saunders Company, p. 370.
George Dock, MD, “Smallpox and Vaccination,” Journal of the Missouri State Medical Association, vol. 19, April 1922, p. 168.
Charles V. Chapin and Joseph Smith, “Permanency of the Mild Type of Smallpox,” Journal of Preventive Medicine, 1932.
“Smallpox in the United States: Its decline and geographic distribution,” Public Health Reports, vol. 55, no. 50, December 13, 1940, pp. 2303-2312.
Journal of the Royal Sanitary Institute, vol. 66, 1946, p. 176.
C. Killick Millard, MD, DSc, “The End of Compulsory Vaccination,” British Medical Journal, December 18, 1948, p. 1074.
Thomas Mack, MD, “A Different View of Smallpox and Vaccination,” New England Journal of Medicine, January 30, 2003, pp. 460–463.
Transcript of the Meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices held at the Atlanta Marriott Century Center, Atlanta, Georgia, on June 19 and 20, 2002.
C. Henry Kempe, “Smallpox vaccination of eczema patients with attenuated live vaccinia virus,” Yale journal of biology and medicine, August 1968, pp. 9–10.
A New Year's Gift to the Lord Provost, Magistrates, and Town Council of the City of Glasgow, 1st January, 1874. p. 46.
American Medicine, vol. II, no. 23, December 7, 1901, p. 901.
Jay Frank Schamberg MD, Diseases of the skin and eruptive fevers, 1908, pp. 383, 408, 409.
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